Dundalk striker David McMillan said there was a mood of frustration on the bus home from Derry on Tuesday night after the Lilywhites were held to a 1-1 draw with the Candystripes.

McMillan came off the bench to put the Lilywhites in front with a classy finish in the 53rd minute but Cameron McJannett’s scrappy equaliser just eight minutes later secured the hosts a point to extend Dundalk’s winless run to six games.

“We left the Brandywell feeling similar to how we did against St Patrick’s Athletic last Saturday,” he told dundalkfc.com. “I felt we deserved to win the game and we only have ourselves to blame for not doing that.

“We shouldn’t have given away the free-kick that led to the goal and then we didn’t defend it properly. It’s frustrating because I don’t think we gave away many chances in the game apart from that.”

McMillan, who was sent on to replace the injured Patrick Hoban, who limped off with a calf injury in the 35th minute, took his personal goal haul against the Candystripes to 14 with a cracking finish which came at the end of a wonderful team move.

It also moved him into joint ninth-place in the club scoring charts, level with former player and manager Turlough O’Connor on 86 goals for Dundalk.

“From my point of view, it was good to get on the scoresheet and get off the mark for the season,” he said. “Obviously, it was unfortunate that it was an injury to Patrick Hoban which let me into the team but it was good to get the minutes.

“It has been a kind of stop-start season for me, thus far, and I had a bit of a niggle which made me miss the Shamrock Rovers game recently so it’s good to get up and running and, hopefully, I will be ready to go again at the weekend and help the team.”

Drogheda United are next up for McMillan and Dundalk when they visit Oriel Park on Saturday and the experienced striker is confident that the Lilywhites can build on their recent displays and collect that elusive first win.

“I think our performances are improving,” he said. “We’ve just got to keep the faith, we have to keep working hard and we have to keep trying because we have some very talented players in the squad. There’s a good group of players here and hopefully, we can pick things up and put a run together.

“Drogheda United have made a good start and they have had some good results, but from our point of view, we have to prepare right and I’m confident that if we continue to perform as we did on Tuesday in Derry, then we should win the game.”

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